Tag Archives: electronic license enforcement

Feb 20
2012 

Building Your License Enforcement Business Case, Part 2

My last blog discussed building a business case for implementing a software license enforcement system.  A key component of the case should be a plan to minimize negative impact on the customer base. This article offers a handful of practices designed to help you ease your customer roll-out.  While not every practice can apply to all cases and to all business, each should provide some food for thought.

Aug 9
2011 

Show Me the Money! Revenue Recognition Best Practices (Part 2)

In my last blog entry (Show Me The Money, Part 1) we looked at a number of factors that play into software revenue recognition when a vendor (ISV) introduces electronic license enforcement into their product lines.  Part 1 focused on the principles and mechanics behind giving customers access to the software upon order execution so that the ISV may recognize revenue.   Part 1 concluded by bringing another key element into the revenue recognition equation: time.  Time can affect revenue recognition in a number of ways:

  • We have the time required by the customer to actually get their license keys after the ISVs claims to have given them “access” to the software.
  • We have the software’s ability to run by default without a license key for a temporary amount of time.  Does that count as “access”?
  • We have some ISVs selling perpetual entitlements but wanting or needing to deliver license keys that expire annually.  Does the customer really have access to what they bought?